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A visual process flow is the visual representation of a complex task or process – with a series of illustrations, one can see how the task/process is broken down step by step. Visual process flows make it easier for people to describe to others or to visualize for themselves how the task/process is done.

Your company offers a niche service to the oil and gas industry, and as you grow, you’re noticing more and more delays – on your end – when it comes to booking business.

You’ve added more staff to make service calls in the field, but the work is reaching to locales farther and farther from your home office. Consequently, you find that you personally are handling most of their calls, since you need to see a copy of the client’s contract, or because you know where to find that last change order.

Contractors operating in multiple counties and/or jurisdictions in Alberta encounter more requirements for doing business than their counterparts working in only one county/jurisdiction. This is especially true when it comes to figuring payroll taxes.

Heavy construction occurring in the Alberta oil and gas fields can be characterized as challenging, given the sometimes harsh conditions and demands on both equipment and workers. Consequently, the trials of heavy construction project management are many.

As we’ve said, companies relying on spreadsheets, documents, or email threads to track things like equipment rentals, purchase orders, inventory shipments, and invoices are dealing with inaccurate, incomplete, and/or duplicated information. This is the cause of many problems, including loss of profits as a project gets stuck in downtime waiting for a part they didn’t know was out of stock.

Do you remember when filing cabinets were a staple in the office? And then, even when technology started taking off, maybe you weren’t quite adverse to the idea of using technology, but still – certain types of critical information, like client contracts, lead developments, and all that project documentation just seemed safer physically within arm’s reach.

Now that you’ve expanded your business, however, there are several issues you might be having. One being that with so much new business, you and your staff are spending all of your time thumbing through what seems like a million client folders to find the right document. Another being that maybe you’ve expanded so much that you have more than one location and/or the need to work both on location and out of the office. In that situation, you don’t even have access to client or contract information because your filing cabinet isn’t anywhere near you.

The success of heavy construction project management is in the details.

And the best way to manage details is with good software. Many business owners are still relying on old methods for managing their projects, their paperwork, and their people. Consequently, the profitability of a project can be put at risk simply because of a lack of the right technology tool: Sage 300 ERP.

Every business must make decisions that impact efficiency and, ultimately, their bottom line. These decisions must be made while also attempting to grow – opening a new branch office, hiring more employees, etc.

Old methods of handling workloads and scheduling via emails, phone calls, and playing phone tag with voice mail remove your business from the competitive arena. To stay on top in the current economy means that you must be able to communicate with your employees at all times. Simply having an office with a secretary to take messages no longer cuts it.

Read more about Sage here: 

Project management for heavy construction is only as efficient as the software you’re using, so while it’s definitely easiest to grab an online template or throw together an Excel spreadsheet, those types of cheap fixes won’t help you in the long run.

Tracking project costs

It seems like every time all the work orders and contracts have been agreed upon and signed, back comes a request for changes.